Ouchh !
Untruthful blogs are getting a problem all over the world.
And,they really hurt !

Dec. 2005 we had an incident at school that really opened the principals eyes !
Two boys did set up a website - that's pretty easy when using the different generators on the web.
They might just as well have used Myspace to do this.
(In this case they used a generator that a lot of teenagers in Norway use to make their own net site.)
Using a fake personality they managed to launch the most vicious and bullying site I have ever seen. In their class they had a boy name Ali- he was from Somalia - and they presented the website as HIS personal . Using a "helpless" vocabulary - pictures of nude fat black women (This is my mother) and so on.
A job well done. Most of the other kids thought this site to be real. The boy had to get professional help and left school for good.
What I had to do was : (punishing the two boys responsible was not enough) Every child in 7Th. grade lost their Internet privileges for half a year. During this time we had an intensive classroom education about netiquette,about the rules that do apply ,about net safety etc. Additionally the lot was "spiced" with real life examples of sexual abuse, of threat, of dangers.
HOWEVER : I did start every class by saying : Internet is great ! You will all be depending on the Internet in your adult life....
(The latter because by presenting restrictions I would never be able to get 12 year old kids to play on my team !)

They told me that the GUEST BOOKS were the no.1 place for bullying others. "Don't you think Rita i fat ? Clara"
Clara - not being Clara but Lisa This is quite common in guest books - the authors anonymity is seemingly secured.

In the midst of this - The parents of the two boys in question felt that their boys had done nothing wrong at all - they had showed initiative !
Parents never seize to surprise----------------

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Edited by olav at 10/16/2006 10:56 PM

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Edited by olav at 10/16/2006 10:56 PM

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Edited by olav at 10/16/2006 10:57 PM

Alan6768, you have just raised the No. 1 question of the social Web, and there are a growing number of "online-safety czars" at social Web sites who are asking that question too, I imagine. This doesn't help you one bit, I know, and I would love to provide an answer if there was one, but I think it's a long-term one that involves human relations more than technology and a lot of education and awareness-raising. You could ask your service to delete the abusive account, but if it doesn't violate their terms of service, they probably won't or can't do so, and if they did, another one could just pop up if the issue isn't resolved offline among the parties involved. I think this is why the social sites are hiring chief safety officers and beefing up customer service. If anyone does have an answer, please post! Wish I could be more helpful, Alan6768. All best,
Anne
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Anne Collier
BlogSafety co-director